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That might come as news to Israelis. But the United Synagogue's Israel Rabbi, Gideon Sylvester, writing in Ha'aretz, argues that tolerance is a British Jewish virtue which Israel would do well to emulate.

There was only one thing worse than watching the world become virally infected with a gormless South Korean dance, and that was discovering the world leaders, from Ban Ki-moon to Barack Obama, were also doing Gangnam Style for TV. There is something about copying a bad dance badly for the cameras that makes you look like personality failure, and that’s aside from the transparent attempt at making Joe public think you're alright.

Equality laws may be having more effect on Jewish life than many anticipated.

As we report in this week’s paper, Leo Baeck College, the progressive rabbinical training institute has changed its entry rules, which would have previously disallowed intermarried candidates for its ordination course.

Anti-discrimination laws do give religious groups some leeway: synagogues can still demand that their rabbi is Jewish.

The reasoning behind Britain and France’s drive to have the EU lift its arms embargo on Syria – which was agreed on this week by European foreign ministers after considerable bickering - seems to be that by strengthening the rebels, the West can eventually force the two sides to the negotiating table.

That does not seem logical.

Leave aside the fact that Russia responded by saying it would arm Assad with sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles, a move that Hague and the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, could not necessarily have predicted. The Russian missile offer caps off month of military gains by the Syrian regime, which has retaken large swathes of the country back from the rebels.

Anita Zabludowicz and her husband Poju may now be number 48 on the rich list, but perhaps more excitingly in December 1973 Anita was one of three girls presented with an Eshet Chayil certificate at the Gosforth and Kenton Synagogue for passing the examinations of the Hebrew Classes of the United Hebrew Congregation of Newcastle, set by the headmaster Rabbi M M Baddiel.

Many know that Laurence Graff (31) began his work in the diamond industry as a diamond mounter in Hatton Garden aged 15. What only the JC archives remember is that in 1969 Laurence Graff (Jewellery Creations) Ltd. had almost completed their marketing plans for 1970 and were looking for “an above average Sales Executive, 30-50 years of age” to “help them complete their plans”.

Mark Pears and his brothers Trevor and David (36) grew up in Hendon and run the William Pears Group, named after the grocery business run by their grandfather Bernard, who changed his name from Schleicher on emigrating from Austria. In 1987 the wedding of Mark and Debra Groves at Marble Arch Synagogue was reported in the JC.

Much has been written in the Western press about Israeli intransigence on the peace process in recent months. There are good reasons for this. Announcing new settlements in sensitive areas such as the E1 corridor – as the Israeli government did last November – is not the action of a side that has any interest in signing a peace deal.

And withholding customs revenue destined for the Palestinian Authority in the wake of Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to apply for a status upgrade at the UN General Assembly was probably a major factor in causing the resignation of Salam Fayyad last week. It gave rise to economic misery in the West Bank, which Abbas leveraged to force Fayyad out. Fayyad, for all his faults, co-operated closely with Israel, renounced violence, was a key state-builder for the Palestinians and opposed Abbas’s unilateral push to secure statehood.

So much for the Israeli peace drive. Less has been said, however, about Palestinian efforts to avoid negotiations.

"I'm soo sick of being stuck in hiding, because my dad keeps telling me to turn down the volume on my Justin Bieber CD. If only I could get out to go and see him on tour…"

Clearly, Anne– the teenage diarist forced into hiding by the Nazis, who eventually died at Bergen Belsen – had more serious considerations than the average 21st century western teenager. In her diary, perhaps one of the most well-known examples of Holocaust-era testimony, she wrote of an everyday existence blighted by fear, death and hatred.